News Releases from Region 3

Swarthmore Ranks 3rd in National Competition to use Green Power

PHILADELPHIA (Sept. 27, 2011) – The borough of Swarthmore in Delaware County, Pa. achieved third place in EPA’s national competition challenging cities to voluntarily use more renewable energy sources for their electricity needs. During the year-long Green Power Community Challenge competition, Swarthmore purchased 27.9 percent of its total electricity from green power sources, the third highest percentage among the competing communities.

EPA’s challenge began September 2010 and included 34 communities that competed in two categories – (1) to increase their purchases of green power kilowatt hours and (2) increase the percentage of green power use in their overall electricity consumption. All 34 towns were ranked in both categories.

“As a Green Power Community, Swarthmore is demonstrating its commitment to improving people’s health and the environment by using electricity provided from less polluting sources,” said EPA mid-Atlantic Regional Administrator Shawn M. Garvin. “Borough citizens should be especially proud since residents and businesses who chose to buy green power over the past year helped earn this recognition.”

Exceeding Swarthmore with a first place ranking is the town of Brookeville in Montgomery County, Md. Brookeville purchased 45.7 percent of its total electricity from green power sources, the greatest percentage among the competing communities in the nation. Washington, D.C. won first place in the category ranking communities that have purchased the highest amount of green power kilowatt hours. D.C. bought 772,324,379 kWh of green power.

Green power communities are collectively purchasing nearly 2.6 billion kWh of green power annually. This is equivalent to the electricity use of more than 226,000 average American homes.